The Child of Light and the Child of Darkness
by The Mysterious Traveller
Summary: Who is more truly evil? Zoot or the Guardian? Find out here!


Authors Note: Try not to think too much about all this or it'll make your brain hurt. That's why it took me a few hours to write and a few flasks of tea which is always a handy thing to have by yer side when writing.  
  
  
Whenever I think about Zoot, Power and Chaos and the Chosen I always find myself thinking about what came of Zoot's reign of terror.  
The Guardian.  
But I always think that the Guardian was and indeed still is far more evil and wisted than Zoot.  
Let me explain why; whenever I think about the Guardian I also think about Tai-San's words to describe him in the Chosen episodes of season three.  
Do you remember what she said to him when the Pretorians were holding the captive Mallrats trapped in the Mall which was about to explode and the Gaians were hanging around outside the gate helpless to stop him?  
  
Tai San: "I have seen into your heart and you are kind and gentle."  
  
This sentence which only comes up to twelve words totally belies the Guardian in my book.  
And another springs to my mind when I think about them and that is: bull.  
Pure bull.  
Tai-San's words do not describe the Guardian when she's trying to talk him out of detonating the bomb and killing everybody in the mall including himself.  
I simply do not recognize the man she describes in that desperate yet passionate plea.  
Whenever I try to desribe the Guardian in my head and think about what I would have told him in that situation I always come up with the total mirror opposite of what Tai-San thinks up.  
I'll give you my description of this truly evil man but before I do that let's compare and contrast him with somebody else that is like him but at the same timecompletely different.  
I'm talking about the man who brought the Guardian into existence.  
The guy who began the philosophy that is Power and Chaos.  
Zoot.  
Now he begins his life as somebody else (like the Guardian. See the simalarity already?) and that someone else's name is Martin.  
Martin is the total opposite of what he'll become namely Zoot the evil leader of the Locusts. He's caring and gentle and leads a totally normal life; going to high school.  
The seeds of his doom are sown when he see's Trudy for the first time.  
Martin falls for her in a BIG way and so he's damned.  
See his attraction to her is not returned since Trudy has become smitten with Bray (Martin's brother. Fate's a sick master isn't it? Rather too fond of irony)  
Try as he might Martin's never going to win her love from his brother and he knows it deep down.  
This is the trigger which sens him down his descent into madness evil and eventually his death.  
Now comes Ebony who like Trudy falls for Bray but for all the wrong reasons. Ebony tries to tear Bray away from Trudy (I'll say one thing for Bray he has a bloody tragic animal magnetism!) she manipulates Martin and his feelings of rejection and his frustration at not being able to attract Trudy like Bray does and she does it all to get at Bray.  
And her plan works.  
This causes Martin and Trudy to make love but only because of Trudy half desire to hurt Bray. (Not blaming Trudy for that. She was going through rough times there and in some ways she was worse of than Martin. It's the eps during season one where she puts Bray on the spot and in a really unenviable position that ticks me off!!)  
In the end Martin and Bray's parents die of the virus and that's the final straw. For Martin it's the stick that breaks the camels back and he finally gives up hope.  
All that's happened to him drives him mad and he becomes Zoot.  
Zoot's rampage of violence reduces the city to a wretched no go zone where everybody is afraid to walk on the streets in case they hear the dreaded sirens of the Locust police car.  
But his life finally changes for the better.  
Ironically it happens the night he dies. See how much irony has to do with Zoot's life?  
Bray calls him to the mall to meet Trudy..and his daughter!  
She was conceived the night he and Trudy made love.  
His life changes one last time before the end as he holds his child in his arms. He has a daughter.  
Despite all the evil he has done and all the suffering he has caused something good has come out of something he has done.  
As Zoot holds his daughter in his arms some of his old humanity stirrs deep inside his soul; you can see it in his face which is why I just LOVE that episode. very very emotional and cool. Why couldnt they have done as well with Dal's death???  
Zoot is saved from the path of evil although he (and we) don't know it yet.  
Lex and Ryan now attack Bray for bringing the evil leader of the Locusts into their home and it is here and now in his final hour in this life that Zoot finally redeems himself and becomes the ultimate tragic hero.  
Zoot (or it it Martin?) comes to the help of his brother and he ends up falling from the balcony.  
To his death.  
Zoot is finally dead but his soul if clean and he can finally rest in peace.  
God he's earned it.  
And now let's compare all of that story of evil despair hope and redemption with another sotry.  
The story of the Guardian.  
Ellie once said:  
  
"Zoot was a monster turned into a god by a lunatic!"  
  
But as with Tai-San's description of the Guardian I simply don't agree at all.  
If anything it's the other way round!  
Now you'll probably say "Hey hang on if the Guardian hadn't been so lonely at school and Zoot hadn't seduced him into the ways of violence then he wouldn't have become the Guardian."  
Not true. Not true at all.  
The fact is the Guardian made himself what he became and he actually enjoyed being the Guardian of Zoot's words.  
Let me tell you; Jaffa as the Guardian was called before the virus was an outsider at school. A social outcast who was bullied.  
That's it. This is his 'tragedy'. Not all that tragic a tragedy considering what happened to Zoot now is it?  
Zoot is driven into the monster he becomes. He never had any choice.  
But even though he became evil he finally found it in himself to feel love and he died trying to save his brother.  
Zoot was not evil or a monster - he was insane.  
  
Trudy: "Martin wasn't a visionary. He was ill frightened and hurt."  
  
Completely true.  
Can you say the same for the Guardian? Not at all!  
He controlled the Chosen to do truly unspeakable things. Kills children seperates lovers and family's and starves innocent people to death.  
And he does it all with a song in his heart. (Quoting Angel from Buffy there. Damn that show is cool!!!)  
What drove him to live this life of evil? To hurt the innocent and take the lives of the innocent and defenceless?  
Nothing at all.  
And that is what makes him the most evil and truly despicable villain in all of the tribe.  
the fact that he chose to become evil of his own free will while Zoot was driven into what he did but in the end found his way again.  
Now try if you might to imagine what it would have been like if some maniac formed a cult that worshipped the Guardian as it's god.  
Whew!! What a world that would have been!  
And that's whatI meant when I said that Ellies words were more fitting for the Guardian that Zoot.  
Zoot is in fact the lunatic who turns the Guardian into a monster but not a god.  
The Guardian tries to turn himself into a god but as a result he goes insane. If you don't understand that then watch the eps where the Chosen ar breaking apart and Tai-San is trapped with him and he starts having all the visions. Also see the ep's just before Luke is thrown out of the Chosen and Tai-San is gonna be made new Supreme Mother for a better insight into my theory.  
Despite the evil he has done in the end Zoot finds grace and life before the end and dies for somebody else whereas the Guardian falls into evil and never repents.  
They're like two sides of one coin in a way.  
In fact you might even say that Zoot and the Guardian are actually brothers in a sense.  
One is tempted into evil but able to turn away from it before he's totally beyong all help and redemption and one who relishes in his evil and tries to excuse himself by blaming his actions on the life of another.  
And that's what the Chosen is really all about. An excuse for the Guardian to do evil and try to excuse what he does by saying that he's doing it because Zoot which is not true at all.  
  
Now to wrap this all up.  
Is Zot evil? No because somebody who is truly evil can never become good in the end like he does.  
Try the leader of the Nomads? Nah. he and his girl friend care for that little girl like one of their own so despite their ruthlessness they must be good deep down. (Still always cheer when Ryan knees him in the gut though! Smile that one off benignly fatty!!)  
Moz? No she's only like Ebony. Not evil just manipulative because she's so frustrated by what's happened and wants the Guardian to pay for what he's done to her.  
Is Top Hat evil? Surprisingly no. He's only insane, just a lot worse than Zoot. Top Hat's an anomal. he doesn't know what he's doing and so good and evil mean nothing to him.  
  
So who IS truly evil? Who beats all of these people in the viciousness game?  
The Guardian because he had the choice about which path he'd take and instead he chose to kill and cause suffering.  
He's pure evil. A plague which spreads misery and grief and sickness wherever it spreads.  
  
Farewell Zoot until the day we meet again old friend.  
Roast for all eternity Guardian.  
  
period. 


End file.
